An intelligent and outspoken only child, Satrapi--the daughter of radical Marxists and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor--bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

"The Graphic Novel offers an examination and analysis of the contemporary graphic novel as literature. Specific attention will be paid to the use of narrative genre in the graphic novel (e.g. the superhero graphic novel, the crime narrative graphic novel, the horror graphic novel, and the realistic/fantastic graphic novel). Attention will also be paid to the most important and most frequently discussed graphic novels published during the past three decades, including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, The Crow by J. O'Barr, Sin City: The Hard Goodbye by Frank Miller, The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, Road to Perdition by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner, Maus by Art Spiegelman. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, and Sandman: preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth (et al)."--Publisher's website.

In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family. Their long dream is realized when the hated Shah is defeated in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, Marji grows up to witnesses first hand how the new Iran has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study. This change proves an equally difficult trial for Marji and finds herself in a different culture loaded with abrasive characters and profound disappointments that deeply trouble her. Even when she returns home, Marji finds that both she and her homeland have changed too much and the young woman and her loving family must decide where she truly belongs.